KBUT and KWSB partner to create after-school program

Gunnison Valley’s beloved radio station, KBUT, is partnering with Western Colorado University’s KWSB to keep student involvement thriving in the Gunnison Valley.

KBUT has been serving Crested Butte and the upper Gunnison Valley since 1986. Their music and community information are almost entirely produced by community volunteers and have long been a staple in the Gunnison Valley for their dedication to providing timely local news, weather, arts, political issues, recreation, environmental, and emergency information.

KWSB “The Penguin” is a student-run, on-campus radio station at Western Colorado University that has been “keeping the coldest valley hot” since 1968. This spring, KWSB moved away from its FM radio programming and moved to a streaming-only digital platform.

Recent WCU graduate Doug Hankins moved into the position of faculty advisor for KWSB earlier this year after his internship with the radio station,, where he focused on adapting the station to make KWSB more community-focused and implemented strategic action plans to optimize KWSB’s workflow.

“The previous faculty advisor asked me if I’d like to become the new faculty advisor after I graduated,” said Hankins. “I said, ‘I don’t know, how much of a workload would there be?’ And she said, ‘You’ve already been doing it.’”

He and his staff have been working to set up a partnership with KBUT.

KBUT has had an after-school community program with the Crested Butte Community School Enrichment Program since 2020 called “The KBUTeens Radio Show.” The program meets every Wednesday after school and students learn how to write, produce, and air pre-recorded content. At the end of the term, the students become official DJs for KBUT.

KBUT wants to bring its program to the Gunnison schools so students can have the same opportunities. They are working on a collaboration that would allow Gunnison students interested in radio to use KWSB’s space instead of commuting to Crested Butte every Wednesday.

“I was one of the nerdy kids in school, and I wasn’t into sports,” said Hankins. “A lot of kids that are similar to me are looking for an outlet to be creative and find some community. Being able to offer something like this to the kids is really awesome.”

This will not only provide an after school program for students, it will expand KBUT’s reach within the valley and create more of a physical presence in Gunnison itself.

“We consider and call ourselves Community Radio for the Gunnison Valley,” said KBUT executive director Jackson Petito. “We want more Gunnison residents to feel that way too. “

This collaboration could also allow KWSB to air some of its content on KBUT, putting students back on traditional airwaves while retaining the advantages of digital streaming. KWSB hopes the partnership will bridge the gap between Western and the Gunnison Valley and foster greater engagement on both sides.

“A lot of students don’t even know that KWSB exists,” said KWSB station manager Lorena Ayala. “Some of them walk by every day and still don’t know we have a radio station. I hope that by working with KBUT we can get more outreach and more students and community members see the work we do.”

Ayala expressed that a lot of time and care go into DJing and running a radio station, and she and the rest of the KWSB staff would love for community members and students to see that hard work. She wants more community members to listen to the station and for local businesses to play it in their stores, because engaging non-students is key to proving its value.

“I always tell my staff that we have to give our listeners a reason to care,” said Ayala. “If people understand that the station supports students and the school, the community support and listenership can translate into potential funding for KWSB.”

Ayala and Hankins both expressed that while KWSB receives the most creative funding from the school, it’s still not enough to cover the costs of paying DJs, updating old equipment, and streaming their station 24/7.

“I’m very grateful for the funding we do get,” said Ayala. “However, we are running on a budget less than one-third of the size of most radio stations. I’m worried that we can’t pay our staff to keep the station running at the level that the community and students deserve and that the KBUT collaboration will bring in more monetary and community support.”

Overall, KWSB is excited to partner with KBUT and thinks that it will be an incredible opportunity for Western, Gunnison schools, and the community. Hankins is hopeful that the program will instill a love of radio in young people and sees it as a way to foster a sense of belonging in media and storytelling while keeping Colorado's oldest collegiate radio alive.

“We don’t just want to be background noise,” said Hankins. “We want KWSB to feel like a hub for Western and the Gunnison Valley as a whole.”